Waiting for my Blue Heron
Dear MTUESD community,
You have to LOVE THE PHOTO. of Jessica Handgis and Paige Herring camped out at IGA to promote Measure A. Exceptionally remarkable, as Paige decided to make a career shift for next year to a district that could provide her more stability than MTUESD, and her time and care is appreciated. This district has a revenue problem, and this district needs to fix it or live with the chaos it creates.
That said, I hope you had a restful and rejuvenating break. My scrappy dog Elvis and I walked the banks of the river multiple times over break and I kept waiting for my beautiful blue heron to reappear. It’s been a year of metamorphosis for MTUESD, the list of projects include repainting, resealing, remimaging, deep cleaning, resurfacing, retrofitting playgrounds, roof replacements, and so much more. Over the break, a huge amount of work occurred. Shout outs to the Copper PTC for the COOL cement wall repaint on our new playground. We’re looking pretty on the outside and now we have to get into the deeper work of correcting our instructional performance. It’s kind of like that song, “Happy”. When you come to school, you should feel proud of your environment and happy to be there and we’ve gotten there. Now we gotta get into the deep work–the instructional achievement…
We have staff that work really hard. We have some students that have challenges at home that have varying levels of support that impact their performance. It’s still our job to fix it. Having a school system with one in ten kids proficient in math and one and four proficient in reading is not OK. Everyone here agrees it is not OK. We had some layoffs this year. We’ve had a couple of resignations, and we have reconfigured some positions to other funding streams to try and restore us to whole. Class sizes will rise next year. If we get the passage of Measure A or the benefit of the Community Schools Grant, we will be able to mitigate that somewhat. If anyone needs information on Measure A, please have them reach out to me.
In other big news, we have our Board of Education, considering an internal appointment for the Copperopolis principal position at our Thursday meeting. We will have more information on that pending board action. We also will be celebrating at the board meeting the wonderful achievement of Tessa Pyle as our Teacher of the Year, and we will also be celebrating CSEA members Tracy Henry and Nicole Boucke as they were nominated for Employees Making a Difference awards.
In construction news, the Mark Twain elementary playground will take about another seven days to complete. I realize it’s an inconvenience. These contractors are booked out for summer months far in advance by big districts, so we have to take them when we can get them and we also have to be mindful of that temperature swing to make sure that the playground material will cure. Come look at the kinder playground or the Copper playground. A huge shout out to Copper PTC for the incredible paint job on the new cement wall at Copper. It was a perfect finishing touch.
If your student has not signed up for summer school, please do so. If you want your kid to get some extra reading and math support and have fun during the summer doing it. Take this free opportunity. You can come for half or full day and for one or two sessions. We have an abundance of staff that will be pouring into individual work for kids . Now is the time to help your kids make that achievement move.
The DELAC meeting was well attended on Tuesday. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation.
Lots of great things are going on in this community. We have our Rotary Big Bike Build and giveaway on May 3 and 4. Eligible families have been contacted for that program. I attended a Habitat for Humanity Bunco event, a Soroptimist Live Your Dream awards dinner, and we continue to have our Vine and Branch tutors on board with us. Community matters-–connection matters–collaboration matters.
I will continue to gaze into the rolling water and look for my beautiful blue heron who symbolizes growth, peach and tranquility. Please be on the lookout and vote with your Measure A ballot.
Sincerely yours
Louise Simson
Superintendent